Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Pope Francis lays out 12 guiding principles for reform of the Roman Curia

In a lengthy, in-depth speech to members of the Roman Curia Thursday,
Pope Francis dug into what he said are the key guidelines of his
ongoing reform, which in his view ought to focus primarily on
conversion, unity, and streamlining the old process in order to meet
modern needs.

Francis opened his annual Dec. 22 speech reflecting
on how God humbled himself, making himself small and becoming a servant
to mankind.

“At Christmas we are called to say ‘yes’ with our
faith, not to the master of the universe, and not even to the most noble
ideas, but precisely to this God who is the humble lover,” he said.

With
this “gentle and impressive” image of the Christ child in mind, the
Pope delved into his reflections on the curial reform, touching not only
on the functions of the curial offices, but also the importance of a
constant personal conversion and the different types of resistance –
both good and bad – that inevitably pop up during processes of change.

“Since
the Curia is not an immobile bureaucratic apparatus, the reform is
above all a sign of the vivacity of the Pilgrim Church, of a Church that
is living and because of this ‘semper reformanda,’ in need of reform
because she is alive,” he said.

Francis stressed that the reform isn’t “an end in itself,” but rather “a process of growth and above all conversion.”

The
reform doesn’t have “an aesthetic end” directed at making the Curia
seem more beautiful in appearance, like “a facelift” or slabbing makeup
onto an “old curial body” in order to hide the wrinkles, he said, adding
that “it’s not the wrinkles of the Church that must be feared, but the
blemishes!”

Merely changing up the staff – which is necessary and
bound to happen – isn’t enough, he said, stressing that only “the
conversion of people” will make the reform bear fruit, because “without a
change of mentality the functional efforts would be in vain.”

Pope
Francis said the reform must first of all “con-form to the Good News
which must be joyfully and courageously proclaimed to all, especially to
the poor, the least and the discarded.” It must also “con-form to the
signs of our times” in order to better meet the needs of the men and
women of today.

At the same time, it involves making the Curia
more “con-formed” with its primary goal, which is collaborating in “the
specific mission of the Successor of Peter, therefore supporting the
Roman Pontiff in the exercise of his singular, ordinary, full, supreme,
immediate and universal authority.”

He highlighted three types of
resistance that can appear, saying such a phenomenon is “normal (and)
even healthy” in terms of helping the process move forward.

The
first type of resistance, he said, is “open resistance,” which often
arises “from good will and sincere dialogue.” However, he said there is
also a “hidden resistance” that comes from “fearful or petrified hearts
content with the empty rhetoric of a complacent spiritual reform.”

These
are the people “who verbally say they are ready for change, but want
everything to stay as it was before,” the Pope observed.

A third
type of resistance he mentioned was “malicious resistance, which often
sprouts in misguided minds and appears when the devil inspires bad
intentions.”

This type of resistance, Francis said, frequently
“hides behind words of self-justification and often accusation; it takes
refuge in traditions, appearances, formalities, in the familiar, or
else in a desire to make everything personal, failing to distinguish
between the act, the actor and the action.”

An absence of a
reaction “is the sign of death,” he said, and because of this “good
resistances – and even those not as good – are necessary and merit being
listened to, welcomed and encouraged to express themselves.”

“The
reform of the Curia is a delicate process that must be lived with
fidelity to the essential, with continuous discernment, with evangelical
courage, with ecclesial wisdom, with attentive listening, with
tenacious action, with positive silence, with firm decisions, with a lot
of prayer, with deep humility, with clear farsightedness, with concrete
steps forward,” he said.

At times, when necessary, there will
also be steps backward, the Pope said, but insisted that the reform must
continue to move forward “with a determined will, with vibrant
vitality, with responsible authority, with unconditional obedience.”

After
reflecting briefly on each of the 12 points, the Pope outlined nearly
20 steps that have already been made in the reform, from the formation
of the Council of Cardinals in 2013, to the 2015 streamlining of the
marriage annulment process, to the establishment of two new
mega-departments, also called dicasteries, which merged several other
offices together earlier this year.

He closed his speech noting
that the meeting began by reflecting on the meaning of Christmas “as the
overturning of our human criteria, in order to emphasize that the heart
and center of the reform is Christ (Christocentrism).”

Francis
closed by reiterating that Christmas “is the feast of God’s loving
humility,” and recited a prayer written by Father Matta el Meskin, a
contemporary monk, on the smallness and humility of Jesus born in
Bethlehem.

After, he gave each of the Curia members a copy of a book
written by the third Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Claudio
Acquaviva S.J., called “Accorgimenti: per curare le mattatie
dell’anima,” meaning “Precautions: to cure diseases of the soul.”